Bhinneka News Online: Wednesday Morning Briefing: Fears of flying Boeing’s 737 MAX won’t get in way of price conscious ticket shoppers

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Wednesday Morning Briefing: Fears of flying Boeing’s 737 MAX won’t get in way of price conscious ticket shoppers - poll

Top News

U.S. fliers still consider ticket prices the most important factor when choosing a flight, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, suggesting two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 MAX jets have had little impact on consumer sentiment. In the public opinion poll released May 15, only about half of U.S. adults say they are familiar with the airplane crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. 43% could identify the Boeing 737 MAX as the aircraft involved. Most importantly for Boeing in the wake of the crashes, only 3% said that aircraft maker or model number was most important to them when buying a plane ticket.

No easy options for China as trade war, U.S. pressure bite. China is running out of options to hit back at the United States without hurting its own interests, as Washington intensifies pressure on Beijing to correct trade imbalances in a challenge to China’s state-led economic model. President Trump on Tuesday called the trade war with China “a little squabble” and insisted talks between the world’s two largest economies had not collapsed, as investors remained on guard for a further escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs.

Exclusive: Trump expected to sign order paving way for U.S. telecoms ban on Huawei. The U.S. president is expected to sign an executive order this week barring U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms posing a national security risk, paving the way for a ban on doing business with China’s Huawei, three U.S. officials familiar with the plan told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia said armed drones struck two of its oil pumping stations on Tuesday, two days after the sabotage of oil tankers near the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. military said it was braced for “possibly imminent threats to U.S. forces in Iraq” from Iran-backed forces. The attacks took place against a backdrop of U.S.-Iranian tension following Washington’s decision this month to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and to beef up its military presence in the Gulf in response to what it said were Iranian threats.

Politics

Alabama’s state Senate passed a bill to outlaw nearly all abortions, creating exceptions only to protect the mother’s health, as part of a multistate effort to have the U.S. Supreme Court reconsider a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris will announce that if elected president she will prohibit imports of some high-powered guns into the United States. Harris has already endorsed a swath of gun control measures, but at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, she will promise to institute a ban on “AR-15-style assault weapons,” a senior campaign official said. There is legal precedent for such a ban, the aide said, pointing to similar measures by former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush taken in order to study permanent bans.

Donald Trump Jr. has reached an agreement with the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee for the panel’s senators to interview him in mid-June, a congressional source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The closed-door appearance could cover a broad array of topics. These could include what Trump Jr. knows about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr., Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and a Russian lawyer, the source said.

House Democrats probe Justice Department's handling of police shootings. In a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Chairman Jerrold Nadler and other committee Democrats requested documents and updates on how the Justice Department has addressed shootings and other cases of excessive police force since President Trump took office in early 2017.

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